This collection offers comprehensive insights into pivotal areas of concern regarding developments in Zimbabwe since its independence. By disclosing the intra-elite competition, assessing the performance of Zimbabwe's economy and explaining how the country's natural resources have been managed, we can better understand the ruling ZANU-PF's increasing reliance on the so-called war veterans and the land reform issue for its political survival.
With a foreword by Terence Ranger this book offers a thought provoking analysis of women's experiences with ZANLA during the war of independence.It challenges official orthodoxy that a gende revolution occured in this period and that a generation of liberated women emerged from the struggle.The research demostrates that while ZANLA extensively mobilised women as porters, nurses, teachers, secretaries and cooks - all crucial to the struggle and glorified in the rhetoric, in substance, the movement percieved these roles as secondary to the activities of men. The author who has had access to the ZANU archives, scrutinises a doctrinal terrain laced with tension between ideology and tradition principles, between the more and less educated cadres and between the women on the ground and the leadership.
There is more to Zimbabwe than Robert Mugabe, as this book demonstrates by analysing alternative histories of the nation's politics from independence to the present
The history of women guerilla fighters in the Zimbabwean National Liberation war (1965-80), this book provides an examination of the many different groups of women who joined the armed struggle and contributes to a feminist understanding of Zimbabwe and African history and politics. Most previously published accounts of this event in history have tended to focus on the feminine' or 'natural' role women played in it, ignoring the experiences of female guerilla fighters. This book redresses the balance, giving voice to a previously unsung group of women.'
"This is an authoritative work, spanning the last 60 years of Zimbabwe's history, told from the unique perspective of a first-hand witnesss. Reflecting his career initially as a human rights lawyer in Bulawayo and later, from 2000, as a member of Parliament for the MDC opposition party, Coltart's personal narrative in compelling and his scope broad. ... Coltart throws new light on the shaping and undoing of a country, from the obstinate racism of Ian Smith that provoked Rhodesia's UDI from Britain in 1965, the civil war of the 1970s which brought independence and hopeful democracy to a scarred nation, the Gukurahundi genocide of the 1980s and the terror of the Fifth Brigade, to Mugabe's war on white farmers and the urban poor, and seemingly unshakeable grip on power."--Back cover.
Africa is well known for the production of national liberation movements (NLMs), stemming from a history of exploitation, colonisation and slavery. NLMs are generally characterised by a struggle carried out by or in the name of suppressed people for political, social, cultural, economic, territorial liberation and decolonisation. Dozens of NLMs have ascended to state power in Africa following a successful violent popular struggle either as an outright military victory or a negotiated settlement. National Liberation Movements as Government in Africa analyses the performance of NLMs after they gain state power. The book tracks the initial promises and guiding principles of NLMs against their actual record in achieving socio-economic development goals such as peace, stability, state building and democratisation. The book explores the various different struggles for liberation, whether against European colonialism, white minority rule, neighbouring countries, or for internal reform or regime change. Bringing together case studies from Somalia, Somaliland, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Algeria, the book builds a comprehensive analysis of the challenges NLMs face when ascending to state power, and why so many ultimately end in failure. This is an ideal resource for scholars, policy makers and students with an interest in African development, politics, and security studies.
This collection brings together essays on the role that radio played in political resistance against oppressive regimes during the period of the armed struggle in the region.
After assuming power in 1980, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) has sought to control the narrative of the struggle for liberation from colonialism, to the exclusion of other players such as the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU). This book investigates the ways in which photographs are being used within Zimbabwe, especially on social media, to challenge the prevailing narrative and reclaim the memories of the subjugated. The book analyses the photographs produced by Zenzo Nkobi during the struggle against colonialism. Drawing on the memories of veterans from ZAPU and its military wing the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZPRA), the book shows that photographs can both act as a conduit for existing narratives, and as a tool for shaping memory narratives, and evidencing ZPRA military prowess ahead of other movements. At a time when Zimbabwe is reassessing the legacy of liberation, this book offers a powerful multidisciplinary assessment for researchers across the fields of history, memory, political science, African studies, and media studies.
